Sitting
Down

On Thursday evening
December 1, 1955, after a long day of work as a seamstress for a Montgomery,
Alabama, department store, Rosa Parks boards a city bus to go home.

Tired
as she is, Mrs. Parks walks past the first few  mostly empty  rows of
seats marked "Whites Only." It's against the law for an African American
like her to sit in these seats. She finally settles for a spot in the
middle of the bus. Black people are allowed to sit in this section as
long as no white person is standing. Though Rosa Parks hates the segregation
laws, and has been fighting for civil rights at the NAACP
for more than 10 years, until today she has never been one to break rules.

The bus continues
along its route. After several more stops the bus is full. The driver
notices that all the seats in the "Whites Only" section are now taken,
and that more white people have just climbed aboard. He orders the people
in Mrs. Parks's row to move to the back of the bus, where there are no
open seats. No one budges at first. But when the driver barks at the black
passengers a second time, they all get up. . . except for Rosa Parks.

QUESTIONS FOR ROSA
PARKSWas Rosa Parks nervous standing her ground? Find out from Mrs. Parks
herself! She explains how she felt on the bus that day in her interview.